Deceptive 'service' offers no good deed in ad

Chris Churchill, The Advocate

Published 6:16 pm, Wednesday, November 28, 2012

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Albany County Clerk Tom Clingan leafs through one of the bound books containing images of older deeds recorded in the county. Images of many newer deeds are recorded electronically and can easily be accessed with a computer, he said. Clingan is warning homeowners about mail solicitations urging them to pay $59.50 for certified copies of their deeds. In fact, the same document is available directly from the clerk's office for about $5, he said.(Cathy Woodruff / Times Union ) less

Albany County Clerk Tom Clingan leafs through one of the bound books containing images of older deeds recorded in the county. Images of many newer deeds are recorded electronically and can easily be accessed ... more

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Albany County Clerk Tom Clingan retrieves one of the bound books containing images of older deeds recorded in the county. Images of many newer deeds are recorded electronically and can easily be accessed with a computer, he said. Clingan is warning homeowners about mail solicitations urging them to pay $59.50 for certified copies of their deeds. In fact, the same document is available directly from the clerk's office for about $5, he said.(Cathy Woodruff / Times Union ) less

Albany County Clerk Tom Clingan retrieves one of the bound books containing images of older deeds recorded in the county. Images of many newer deeds are recorded electronically and can easily be accessed with ... more

Image 3 of 3

Albany County Clerk Tom Clingan with one of the bound books containing images of older deeds recorded in the county. Images of many newer deeds are recorded electronically and can easily be accessed with a computer, he said. Clingan is warning homeowners about mail solicitations urging them to pay $59.50 for certified copies of their deeds. In fact, the same document is available directly from the clerk's office for about $5, he said.(Cathy Woodruff / Times Union ) less

Albany County Clerk Tom Clingan with one of the bound books containing images of older deeds recorded in the county. Images of many newer deeds are recorded electronically and can easily be accessed with a ... more

Deceptive 'service' offers no good deed in ad

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The deed scam is back.

If you're a regular reader of this column, you may remember this little method of deception, which usually takes the following form: A letter arrives in the mail telling a homeowner that he or she really should have their deed on hand, and the company sending the letter promises to provide a copy.

Sounds good so far. So what's the scam?

Well, the company usually charges an exorbitant amount for the deed, even though any homeowner could travel down to the county clerk's office and get the document for about $5. In Albany County, deed copies are even available free online.

Nevertheless, a new round of deed letters are again arriving in Capital Region mailboxes. Tom Clingan, the clerk in Albany County, sent me one such letter received by an Albany woman and asked that I help warn folks away from what he considers a blatant deception.

The letter from a company called Secure Document really is a doozy of dishonesty, in my opinion. It's labeled a "deed processing notice," and appears to be a bill from a federal agency. The letter asks for $85 by a certain date — and threatens a $35 fee for late payments.

I called the number on the letter and quickly found myself in automated hell. I couldn't get a real person to pick up.

But using another phone number found during a public records search, I was able to track down a living, speaking human at Secure Document Services. He called himself Neil Stockton and described himself as a manager at the company.

Stockton — I don't believe that was his real name — defended the business, noting that the letter's small print makes it clear that the mailing is not from the government. He claimed his company is useful for homeowners who didn't want to journey down to the clerk's office.

"It's a service of convenience," he said. "Our goal is not to mislead anybody."

Well, I disagree. If a letter that looks like a bill but isn't, it's inherently deceptive. And if attempting to charge $85 for a document that's available for free isn't misleading, then I don't know what is.

I asked "Stockton" about the address of his company — 1300 Pennsylvania Ave. in Washington, D.C. That's the Ronald Reagan Building, a federally owned structure with offices for private tenants. I wanted to know if the U.S. government really rented space to him there.

That's when the conversation took a weird turn. "The letter you have isn't from us," Stockton said. Um, what?

"That's a competitor of ours," Stockton said. "He's driving us out of business."

Wow, I guess even dishonest businesses have it tough these days. In fact, I later learned that Secure Document Services is suing Secure Document for trademark infringement.

That's right — a deceptive business is upset because someone duplicated its method of deception. Sorry, Neil, but I don't think anyone's going to feel sorry for you.

In the suit, which should be laughed out of court, Secure Document Services says the mailers sent out by its rival are a "verbatim copy" to its own "and advertise and promote the identical services."

Letters from both companies are submitted as court exhibits, and, yup, they're identical. They both, for example, ask for exorbitant sums, display phony due dates and threaten late fees. The only apparent difference is the variation in Washington, D.C., addresses at the top of the letters.

Court filings show that Secure Document Services is owned by Neil Camenker. And I'm 99-percent sure Camenker was the "manager" passing himself off as Neil Stockton. (When I questioned Stockton on the veracity of his name, he told me I was being "argumentative.")

Secure Document, meanwhile, is owned by Brian Pascal, who once worked for Camenker's company. Both men live and work in Southern California; presumably, they use Washington business addresses to enhance the perception that their letters are from a federal agency.

Camenker claims that Pascal, whom I couldn't reach for comment, doesn't even bother to send people their deeds, and says in court documents that his competitor's "entire business is based on fraud."

But the lawsuit neglects to mention Camenker, 54, was sued by attorneys general in Illinois and Washington state for allegedly deceptive practices of his own.

In a Washington settlement, a company owned by Camenker agreed to refund money to customers after it sent letters to homeowners from a fictitious "State Records Retrieval Board." The mailings asked recipients to pay $87 by a due date, or face a $35 late fee.